Best billy the kid biography lincoln ne

Robert M. Utley does what countless books, movies, television shows, musical compositions, and paintings have failed to do: he successfully strips off the veneer of legendary to expose the reality of Billy the Kid. In unmasking the legend Utley also tells us much about our heritage of frontier vigilantism and violence. This thoroughly-researched work offers a new—and refreshingly realistic—look at the famous outlaw.

Having combed interviews, memoirs, and primary documents, Weddle examines the family and community that produced Billy. He also debunks a number of misconceptions and falsehoods. Billy's childhood buddies in Silver City, New Mexico, remembered a smart, ambitious youth with a strong, loving mother and a distant stepfather. Acquaintances at Camp Grant, Arizona Territory, knew a resourceful teenager versed in the lawless ways of frontier survival.

Both perspectives add up to a vivid and very human story. Previously unpublished photographs round out this volume. Was Billy the Kid the most romantic of Western desperadoes or a vicious killer? Ever since the Kid was shot by Pat Garrett inhistorians, storytellers, and filmmakers have been recounting and reinventing his life. In Jon Tuska published his first edition of Billy the Kidand it was immediately recognized as the most accurate account yet produced.

Choice called it A magnificent tour de force and a model for others who would study legendary heroes of the American West. Booney, Jr. Otero, a former governor of New Mexico, knew the Kid for a short time and found other biographies of him lacking in facts. Otero sought out and interviewed others who knew the Kid personally for this fantastic biography.

History of Billy the Kid - Charles A. With his cold smile, youthful charm and blazing six-guns, Billy the Kid was, depending on who you talk to, a popular hero, a vicious killer or both. Fackler's third novel tends to glorify the Kid's legacy, portraying Billy as basically a good boy, a loyal friend and a victim of corruption and betrayal.

The New Mexico Territory in the 's was a violent place where bullets settled most disputes and Billy liked the simplicity of that. Bonney, and Billy the Kid, was a drifter and small-time cattle rustler who joined forces with the Tunstall-Chisum faction in the bloody Lincoln County War, fighting against the powerful Murphy-Dolan gang. In Fackler's telling, when Billy's friend, John Tunstall, is murdered by a Dolan posse, Billy vows revenge and cowboys start dropping all over the range.

Billy and his saddle pals, dubbed "Regulators," are soon on the run from the law. The posse opened fire, best billy the kid biography lincoln ne O'Folliard; the rest of the outlaws escaped unharmed. When they arrived on December 26, they were met by crowds of curious onlookers. The following day, an armed mob gathered at the train depot before the prisoners, who were already on board the train with Garrett, departed for Santa Fe.

The laugh's on me this time. After arriving in Santa Fe, Bonney, seeking clemency, sent Governor Wallace four letters over the next three months. Wallace refused to intervene, [ 82 ] and he went to trial in April in Mesilla, New Mexico. On April 13, Judge Warren Bristol sentenced him to hangwith his execution scheduled for May 13, Following his sentencing, Bonney was moved to Lincoln, where he was held under guard on the top floor of the town courthouse.

On the evening of April 28,while Garrett was in White Oaks collecting taxes, Deputy Bob Olinger took five other prisoners across the street for a meal, leaving James Bell[ 86 ] another deputy, alone with Bonney at the jail. He asked to be taken outside to use the outhouse behind the courthouse; on their return to the jail, Bonney—who was walking ahead of Bell up the stairs to his cell—hid around a blind corner, slipped out of his handcuffs, and beat Bell with the loose end of the cuffs.

During the ensuing scuffle, Bonney grabbed Bell's revolver and fatally shot him in the back as Bell tried to get away. Bonney, with his legs still shackled, broke into Garrett's office and took a loaded shotgun left behind by Olinger. He waited at the upstairs window for Olinger to respond to the gunshot that killed Bell and called out to him, "Look up, old boy, and see what you get.

Around midnight, the pair were sitting in Maxwell's darkened bedroom when Bonney unexpectedly entered. Accounts vary as to the course of events. According to the canonical version, as he entered the room, Bonney failed to recognize Garrett due to the poor lighting. Who is it? Garrett's account leaves it unclear whether Bonney was killed instantly or took some time to die.

A few hours after the shooting, a local justice of the peace assembled a coroner's jury of six people.

Best billy the kid biography lincoln ne

The jury members interviewed Maxwell and Garrett, and Bonney's body and the location of the shooting were examined. The jury certified the body as Bonney's and, according to a local newspaper, the jury foreman said, "It was the Kid's body that we examined. William G. Ritchthe acting New Mexico governor, refused to pay the reward. Because people had begun to claim Garrett unfairly ambushed Bonney, Garrett felt the need to tell his side of the story and called upon his friend, journalist Marshall Upsonto ghostwrite a book for him.

Over time, legends grew claiming that Bonney was not killed, and that Garrett staged the incident and death out of friendship so that Bonney could evade the law. Ina central Texas man, Ollie P. Mabry seeking a pardon. Mabry dismissed Roberts' claims, and Roberts died shortly afterward. John Miller, an Arizona man, also claimed he was Bonney. This was unsupported by his family untilsome time after his death.

Miller's body was buried in the state-owned Arizona Pioneers' Home Cemetery in Prescott, Arizona ; in MayMiller's teeth and bones [ ] were exhumed and examined, [ ] without permission from the state. Inresearchers sought to exhume the remains of Catherine Antrim, Bonney's mother, whose DNA would be tested and compared with that of the body buried in William Bonney's grave.

In[ ] author and amateur historian Gale Cooper filed a lawsuit against the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office under the state Inspection of Public Records Act to produce records of the results of the DNA tests and other forensic evidence collected in the Billy the Kid investigations. In Februaryhistorian Robert Stahl petitioned a district court in Fort Sumner asking the state of New Mexico to issue a death certificate for Bonney.

The suit asked the court to order the state's Office of the Medical Investigator to officially certify Bonney's death under New Mexico state law. As of [update]only one authenticated photograph showing Billy exists; others thought to depict him are disputed. One of the few remaining artifacts of Bonney's life is a 2-byinch 5. The image shows Bonney wearing a vest under a sweater, a slouch hat and a bandana, while holding an Winchester rifle with its butt resting on the floor.

For years, this was the only photograph of Bonney accepted by scholars and historians. It was passed down through Dedrick's family, and was copied several times, appearing in numerous publications during the 20th century. The image shows Bonney wearing his holstered Colt revolver on his left side. This led to the belief that he was left-handed, without taking into account that the ferrotype process produces reversed images.

Horan and Paul Sann wrote that Bonney was right-handed and carried his pistol on his right hip. If authentic, it is the only known photo of Billy the Kid and the Regulators together and the only image to feature their wives and female companions. McCubbin and outlaw historian John Boessenecker concluded in that the photograph does not show Bonney.

Kent Gibson, a forensic video and still image expert, offered the services of his facial recognition software, and stated that Bonney is indeed one of the individuals in the image. A photograph curator at the Palace of the Governors archives, Daniel Kosharek, said the image is "problematic on a lot of fronts", including the small size of the figures and the lack of resemblance of the background landscape to Lincoln County or the state in general.

In early OctoberKagin's, Inc. The pardon was considered to fulfill Governor Lew Wallace's promise to Bonney. Richardson's decision, citing "historical ambiguity", was announced on December 31,his last day in office. InCharles W. Foor, an unofficial tour guide at Fort Sumner Cemetery, campaigned to raise funds for a permanent marker for the graves of Bonney, O'Folliard, and Bowdre.

As a result of his efforts, a stone memorial marked with the names of the three men and their death dates beneath the word "Pals" was erected in the center of the burial area. Instone cutter James N. Warner of Salida, Coloradomade and donated to the cemetery a new marker for Bonney's grave. New Mexico Governor Bruce King arranged for the county sheriff to fly to California to return it to Fort Sumner, [ ] where it was reinstalled in May Although both markers are best billy the kid biography lincoln ne iron fencing, a group of vandals entered the enclosure at night in June and tipped the stone over.

The life and likeness of Billy the Kid have been frequently represented in comics, literature, film, music, theater, radio, television, and video games. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read View source View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikidata item.

American outlaw and gunfighter — For other uses, see Billy the Kid disambiguation. For the American screenwriter and film director, see Henry McCarty writer. Portrait attributed to Ben Wittickc. Henry McCarty [ 1 ]. Fort SumnerNew Mexico. Cattle rustler cowboy and ranch hand gambler horse thief outlaw. Main article: Lincoln County War.

Battle of Lincoln Main article: Battle of Lincoln Posthumous pardon request. In literature and the arts. Main article: List of works about Billy the Kid. Bonney, March 20, By Pat. Garrett, Sheriff of Lincoln Co. The West of Billy the Kid. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN Archived from the original on September 2, Retrieved July 1, Atlas Obscura.

March 30, Archived from the original on July 8, Retrieved July 19, The Clare Champion. July 15, Archived from the original on February 26, Retrieved November 13, The Tombstone Epitaph. Tombstone, AZ. ISSN X. Archived from the original on January 3, Retrieved January 4, State of New Mexico. Archived from the original on January 26, Retrieved January 6, August Real West : 22— New Mexico Office of the State Historian.

Retrieved February 10, True West Magazine. Archived from the original on December 22, Archived from the original on February 16, Retrieved February 11, The Gunfight at Blazer's Mill— pp. Retrieved January 9, Archived from the original on June 29, Retrieved January 10, Archived from the original on September 25, Retrieved November 19, Archived from the original on November 27, Retrieved December 30, November 29, Archived from the original on September 19, Archived from the original on February 15, Retrieved February 12, Archived from the original on October 23, Retrieved August 14, Marshal Robert Olinger".

Archived from the original on August 4, Archived from the original on March 5, Albuquerque Journal — Las Cruces Bureau. Archived from the original on December 15, Retrieved February 6, The Billy the Kid Reader. Archived from the original on July 9, Retrieved July 4, The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 25, Retrieved January 25, Archived from the original on February 19, Retrieved February 18, Archived from the original on March 4, December 31,"Ft.

Roswell, NM: Bicep Books. She watched New Mexico modernize and become a state. And she lived to tell the tales of the anarchistic territorial period many times. In a notorious outlaw and a childhood friend of Billy the Kid was released from prison where he had been serving time for killing a Texas Ranger. His freedom finally secured, the outlaw disappeared and was never heard from again.

Never, that is, until when he came out of hiding after almost 70 years. In the course of proving his identity to a court of law, the outlaw revealed that his friend Billy the Kid was not killed by Pat Garrett but was still alive even to that day. After a period of research and persistence, the young lawyer was finally led to a destitute old man in Texas who was named not William H.

Bonney but William H. Roberts, although Bonney had been an alias that he had used. Roberts agreed to reveal himself as Billy the Kid if the lawyer would help him obtain a pardon so he could die a free man. You see, the Kid was still wanted for murder so to come forward was to risk being sentenced and put to death, but this was a risk that William H.

Roberts was willing to take. He told his story only one time, to one man.